This is one of seven books I have written
as author or co-author. It is available in PDF format at this link. Enjoy it. It will
contribute to your understanding of English and also to your teaching
success.
The statistics beyond the English language are startling. Of all the world’s
languages, of which there are approximately 2,700, it is easily the richest
in vocabulary. The multi-volume Oxford English
Dictionary
lists about half a million words. A further half-million technical and
scientific terms haven’t even been catalogued yet according to traditional
estimates. “About 350 million people use the English vocabulary as a mother
tongue: about 1/10 of the world’s population, scattered across every
continent and surpassed, in numbers, though not in distribution, only by the
speakers of the many varieties of Chinese,” wrote a team of linguists in the
1980s,[1]
and in the years since the prominence of the language has grown far greater.
English is the global tongue – the language of business, science, technology,
sports, glamour and virtually every other international activity and
enterprise you can think of.
To teach English to the great masses of potential students requires armies of
English teachers, and this book over the years contributed considerably to
the enormous effort. For that reason, I am proud to bring it up again in this
online format. Its purpose is to help its users become great English
teachers. Yes: you read that right.
To become a great English teacher, what do you need to know and what do you
have to do? I reflected continually on those questions during a four-year
teaching sojourn in Thailand. This book presentsmyanswers.
After being invited to develop a course in TEFL (Teaching English as a
Foreign Language) at Chiang Mai University’s Language Institute, I developed
this text for my students – all of them westerners preparing for a stint
teaching English overseas. I improved the text continually while I was
teaching, and revised it again once I decided to make it available as an
e-book.
The book’s structure is straightforward: Study notes, essays, readings, and
appendices. Besides commentaries on the complexity of the English language
theory and the many challenges English teachers face, these materials cover
grammar, pronunciation, a summary of writing errors (and ways to correct
them,) and a glossary of language teaching terms. Clearly useful for my
teachers in training, these materials are equally valuable for teachers in
the field.
I would be remiss not to describe the TEFL course itself. Besides three-hour
classes, five days a week, my students – typically 12-15 in number, who
generally became close friends for the duration of the course – broke into
three groups each evening to participate in two- hour English classes for
Thai students. (Three experienced teachers – I was one of them – conducted
the classes). For the last two weeks of the five-week program, the students
took turns preparing their own lesson plans. Each conducted one lesson while
the instructor observed.
This book covers information about Thai history and culture. For those
expecting to teach outside Thailand, this material may be interesting only.
However, it also carries a lesson for the teacher working far away: Because
of the importance of socio-linguistic understanding, wherever you find your
teaching assignment you need to take the initiative and learn about local
culture and history. Ideally, you should also begin to learn the local
language. Becoming part of local society, rather than remaining an outsider,
makes life easier for you. It also helps you appreciate the language learning
challenges your students are facing.
The classroom is an unpredictable place where almost anything can happen, and
what you need to do often involves gut feel. My most vivid experience
occurred when one of my students – a very pleasant woman in her 40s (and a
vegetarian) – didn’t show up for class. Since attendance was mandatory, this
surprised me. The reason for her absence became clear half an hour later,
when one of the other students received a call. He went into the hallway to
receive it, and then summoned me out to talk.
It turned out that my student was in the Chiang Mai jail, because the
previous night she had shot to death the father of her many children. I had
to make a decision quickly, and I asked the student who received the call to
say nothing, so the day’s classes could continue. Another teacher may have
chosen instead to call off classes for the day.
Many books served as sources for the material used in this book and are noted
in the bibliography and endnotes. Of particular note for the language
teacher, though, is Stephen Krashen’s Second
Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning – the other textbook
for my TEFL course. Other valuable resources include How Languages are Learned (in the early days, also used as
a textbook for this course) by Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada, and Teaching American English Pronunciation by Peter Avery and
Susan Ehrlich.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my own teachers, Laurie Anderson and Ruth
Epstein of the University of Saskatchewan, and I need to thank one of my
former students.
Presently a math and English teacher at Thanyaburi High School in Thailand,
Dave Walker recently asked for the latest draft in PDF format, because the
document is now impossible to come by in Thailand. That simple request – and
the continuing popularity of my Language Matters:
Studies in Language, History and Energy blog, in which my online essays
on language are particularly popular – started cogs moving in my head. I soon
concluded that by publishing this book I could again contribute to the great
institutions that are growing up around the need to serve the multitudes of
people around the world who seek instruction in the five skills needed to
master English.
